Universal titles with bad quality

[Helicon]

Disney and SONY are shinning with all the quality releases they are puting out rigtht now!

Universal isn't doing just as well for the HD-DVD camp with picture quality. This is just a small list, of the last 14 reviews at highdefdigest, some even say they are biased towrds HD-DVD at digest If SONY or Disney where putting out titles with this kind of quality, the HD-DVD folks would be all over us.

Dragonheart 3.5
The River 3
Lost in translation 3.5
The Frighterners 3.5
Midnight run 3
Smokey and the bandit 3.5
Skeleton Key 4.5
The 40 year old virgin 3
The Hitcher 4
Alpha dog 3
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4.5
The Nutty Professor 4
The Game 2
The Jerk 2.5

Average 3.4

[Helicon]

Last 14 SONY titles:

The Messengers 4
Curse of the Golden Flower 4
Cruel Intentions 3.5
Chris Botti Live with Orchestra and Special Guests 4.5
Revenge 4
Donnie Brasco 4.5
Blood and Chocolate 4
Stomp the yard 4.5
Catch and release 4.5
Closer 4.5
Secret window 4
Warriors of heaven and earth 4
Volver 4.5
Identity 4.5

Average 4.2

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Helicon

If SONY or Disney where putting out titles with this kind of quality, the HD-DVD folks would be all over us.

Exactly.

For comparison, here are the first 14 titles Sony titles reviewed on HDD:

The Fifth Element 3
50 First Dates 3.5
XXX 3
Underworld: Evolution: 4
The Terminator: 4 (MGM before the move to Fox)
Hitch 3
House of Flying Daggers 3
Basic Instinct 2 3.5
Ultraviolet 4
The Benchwarmers 3.5
Species 3
Stealth 4.5
The Last Waltz 3.5
Swat 4

Average: 3.54

[baccusboy]

Even the Sonystore preview of Flying Daggers looks horrible. It scared me away from buying the disk!

[Blu Tiger]

Seems like universal has more older titles.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by kiddtigger

Seems like universal has more older titles.

That's true. But, we've seen marevelous discs from very old stock (e.g. The Searchers).

Just as early Sony's frequently didn't show the care required, the current Universal's are showing a lack of care. It's not a format or codec issue. It's a studio's dedication to quality issue.

Gary

[movies3]

Originally Posted by kiddtigger

Seems like universal has more older titles.

yea because they arent doing well with coming up with new stuff to release. I mean knocked up was okay

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

That's true. But, we've seen marevelous discs from very old stock (e.g. The Searchers).

Just as early Sony's frequently didn't show the care required, the current Universal's are showing a lack of care. It's not a format or codec issue. It's a studio's dedication to quality issue.

Gary

I think they're trying to go for quality over quantity, to keep in step w/ the number of BD titles out there. They're just pumping out titles, w/ no care for quality of movie or picture, just trying to say, "look, we've released x movies on HD-DVD." They're screwed once BD+ and BD-J 1.1 are finished.

[WickyWoo]

Now let's be fair

OF those titles:

Lost in translation 3.5
Midnight run 3
Smokey and the bandit 3.5
Skeleton Key 4.5
The Hitcher 4
Alpha dog 3
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4.5
The Jerk 2.5

Were either very old from the 70s/early 80s where the negatives are degrading due to crappy film stock, or were made on indy budgets where the theatrical presentation wasn't that great day 1. They're never going to be "stunning".

BR has the same problem on a bunch of their title selections.

The only way to be better than the HD DVD fanboys is to not make the ludicrous and unfair comparisons they do to make themselves seem superior. It's entirely true that Universal doesn't have much coming new, and that they've pretty much blown their back catalog already, sans Spielberg.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by kiddtigger

Seems like universal has more older titles.

that's where their strength is...

they don't have that many good recent releases...

they target the people who want to re-purchase all their DVD's in HD...

[GaS]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Now let's be fair.

I say screw fairness. I don't care how old the titles they have been putting out are. HD-DVD is screwed if that is the best Universal can do (quality and title wise). Plus they deserve to take some crap after the crowing they did when BD launched.

[WickyWoo]

Can't you see the desperation already?

It gets worse each and every week, between the fire sale price cuts and the mass software giveaways, it's a lot more fun to watch them go down in flames

It's going to be even more fun the day Toshiba announces a BR player, because then a hell of a lot of people over at AVS will be smashing their HD-DVD players with sledgehammers, and making humiliating videos for Youtube about how stupid they were to have not done their research in the first place.

Or more likely they'll just wimp out and scream about how they never said that and how they're not going to

THere's so much legit crap you can toss their way, why go with the arbitrary stuff? It's like going after Uwe Boll for his mediocre boxing skills when you have his cinematic brood to make fun of.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by movies3

I mean Knocked Up was okay

Surely nothing screams HD as much as a talking head comedy.

[nhaase]

[QUOTE=WickyWoo;103374]Now let's be fair

OF those titles:

Lost in translation 3.5Midnight run 3
Smokey and the bandit 3.5
Skeleton Key 4.5
The Hitcher 4
Alpha dog 3
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4.5
The Jerk 2.5

Were either very old from the 70s/early 80s where the negatives are degrading due to crappy film stock, or were made on indy budgets where the theatrical presentation wasn't that great day 1. They're never going to be "stunning"...
QUOTE]

The titles I have bolded are NOT from the 70's or 80's, they're all from the 2000's. I don't know what you're smoking, and I'm hoping you're being sarcastic.

Alpha Dog was in Theatres during last Winter, so that, of any title, should be near 5/5 on quality, since the newest technology was available for filming.

Not to be an @s$ here, but think before you type, that was a big mistake.